Page 175 - Getting of the fence

by a continuous professional development programme in which the teachers enriched their EFL literature curriculum through the Comprehensive Approach, thereby focusing on learning objectives, assessment, and lesson design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). In year 2, we again video-recorded all literature lessons (n = 154), which was followed by individual interviews.
In finding out how teachers experienced the relevance and usefulness of
the Comprehensive Approach after working with it for one year, we analysed the
data through the lenses of sensemaking (Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2002; Weick,
Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 2005) and Practicality Theory (Doyle & Ponder, 1977; Janssen,
Westbroek, & Doyle, 2015). In terms of relevance, the teachers experienced the Comprehensive Approach as a practical framework that made them more aware
of their literature teaching practice. The Comprehensive Approach provided them
with a common language which allowed them to gain a clear insight into the why,
how, and what of their EFL literature curriculum. All eight teachers found a match
between the pedagogical content knowledge focused on in the intervention (i.e. the Comprehensive Approach) and their own frame of reference. Although for some
teachers the four approaches were an eye-opener, others used the four approaches
as a confirmation of their current teaching practices. In other words, the extent to
which the Comprehensive Approach led to a transformed own frame of reference
(the process of accommodation) (Luttenberg et al., 2013) or to an adaptation of the Comprehensive Approach to fit the teachers’ own frame of reference (the process
of assimilation) (Opt. cit.) varied between the teachers. Regardless of assimilation 7 or accommodation, several teachers experienced a rise in confidence and energy
when working with the Comprehensive Approach.
In terms of usefulness, the Comprehensive Approach appeared to be useful for all teachers, but to a varying extent and with a varying focus. How teachers made sense of the Comprehensive Approach had an impact on how they implemented it in their lessons. Some teachers truly embraced the Comprehensive Approach and enriched their lessons by consciously including each of the four approaches. Other teachers were more focused on the structure of their lessons, on including their students more in the learning process, or on being able to improvise more and add variety in their lessons. On average, the lessons in year 2 showed a smaller deviation from the assumed even distribution of 4 x 25%. In other words, in year 2 less time was spent on the Text approach and more time was spent on the Context, Reader, and Language approaches.
Summary, discussion, and conclusion
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